Hegseth heads to Manila to shore up US ties with Asia-Pacific partners

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will attend a Southeast Asian defence meeting this week alongside his counterparts from India, South Korea and Japan as Washington looks to solidify ties with the region after a year overshadowed by the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran.The meeting will bring together defence officials from the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus eight of the bloc’s dialogue partners.Australia, New Zealand, Russia and China are also expected to send representatives to the talks, which run from Wednesday to Thursday in the Philippines.Known as the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), the meeting will be held alongside a parallel ASEAN members-only event for Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.India is among the dialogue partners that will host bilateral meetings on the sidelines of ADMM-Plus to “review the ongoing defence ties and explore ways to further strengthen strategic partnerships”, according to state media.William Yang, senior analyst for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that the focus will be on re...